The secret of flying a kite

The man flying the kite said he got his kite less than one hour ago from the  village’s only  Candy and Kite store. He had never flew a kite before. “This was the first time and it was fun,” he said. Is there any risk in flying it? “I just read the instructions that was inside the box,” the man said. “No, unless you let the kite chase the kids or people walking on the beach,” he said smiling.Is he creative in manipulating the 2 strings to make the kite dance? “I guess I could, he said. “I did not think about it.” I did not think he had to use intuition to fly the kite for enjoyment and for hours.  “It is not really hard work. Although I could do a lot of spirals and other kite’s dances if I spend more time with my hand dexterity,” he explained. 

 R.I.C.H. is an acronym for Risk, Intuition, Creativity, Hard Work-key strategies for achieving success in everything according to Garry Kasparov, the youngest world chess champion and considered one of the best chess players of all time.

The “Kite Runner” as everyone knows is a different story-with more drama, intrigue and moral dilemma. Mine is a simple story and just a very short conversation with a man who was flying a kite in Doran Beach on Mother’s Day when it was cold and cloudy and our whole family had a wonderful time.

Mother's Day on the beach

The whole family celebrated Mother's Day in Doran Beach in Bodega Bay, northwest of San Francisco. It was cloudy with a cool breeze. The children played in the freezing water then running away laughing from the chasing waves. They played baseball, volleyball, dug holes, built castles and all sorts of figures, took walks and ate all sorts of food.

(photo: our son and daughter  inside the half tent, my wife in peach and our dauhter-in-law in khaki, one of our grandsons lying down covered with towels)

The adults enjoyed playing with the children and other times simply watched them play.  We talked to strangers who came ashore in their canoes filled with crab traps with some dungeness and rock crabs. We talked to the kite flyers. We took the children walking to the jetty where some people casting fisherman lines but a small basket at the end instead of hooks. The lines were for crabs. Something new we thought.

(photo: three of our grandchildren)

At about 5 in the afternoon the sun came out bright. The children removed their sweatshirts and continued playing their games.

An extraordinary day. It's Mother's Day.

Happy Mother's Day

2 years ago Cheri and  I visited the Filoli Gardens located 30 miles south of San Francisco.  Cheri returned there last year with the Women's Guild. Butterflies and bees love the gardens.It offers a special Mother's Day celebration.

(photo of one circular flower arrangement taken by Cheri last year)

Filoli was built for Mr. and Mrs. William Bowers Bourn, prominent San Franciscans whose chief source of wealth was the Empire Mine, a hard-rock gold mine in Grass Valley, California. 

Mr. Bourn arrived at the unusual name Filoli by combining the first two letters from the key words of his credo: “Fight for a just cause; Love your fellow man; Live a good life.”

How many bulbs does Filoli plant every year?
A total of 104,000 bulbs were purchased for the Garden for the 2012 display season. Bulbs were planted in the Garden beds and potted up into 3,300 display pots last fall. Tulips – 48,000 for garden beds and pots (18,000 in beds, 30,000 in pots, 47 varieties) Daffodils – 24,000 for garden beds and pots (36 varieties) Other bulbs (hyacinth, muscari, etc.) – 32,000 The sunken garden alone accounts for 3,500 Tulip ‘Dordogne’ and 800 Daffodil ‘Sir Winston Churchill’

Big things have been happening in the Woodland Garden. Many of the old, overgrown Rhododendron have been removed and several Camellias have been moved to new locations. Our goal is to open up the Woodland and improve the structural relationship between the ground covers, low growing flowering shrubs, mid-story flowering trees, and finally the upper canopy.

above excerpts are from the website: http://www.filoli.org/